Mergers & Acquisitions & Joint Ventures - food industry

Eurofood, Feb 13, 2001

 Buyer                 Target                 Country
Arena Holding          Nova Surgelati         Italy



ConAgra Foods          Artel                  US/Canada






Billington Food Group  Belso's Cereals        UK
                       Research and
                       Development Ltd





Delicious Alternative  Movenpick Foods        Canada/
Desserts               Canada                 Switzerland




International          Pillsbury businesses   USA
Multifoods Corp.





Bongrain               Compagnie Laitiere     France
                       Europeenne




Royal Ahold            Grand Union            Netherlands/US







Royal Ahold            Parkway Food Service   Netherlands/US




Gregory's Snack        Neon Restaurants       Greece




Grigoris Micromeals    Neon Cafe              Greece




Estover-Kaubanduse     Uhinenud Meiereid      Estonia








Saudi Savola           Saudi Light Food       Saudi Arabia
Company                Company

Saputo                 Dairyworld Foods       Canada/US





Woolworth's            Liberty Liquors        Australia




Harvest State Foods    Rodriguez Festive      US
Foods




Compass                Morrison Management    UK/US
                       Specialists



Compass                Selecta                UK/Switzerland



CIP                    Volozhinsky/Rakovsky   France/Belarus



Kvasac                 Podravka               Croatia



 Buyer               Remarks
Arena          Arena Holding, through its subsidiary Pollo Arena,
Holding        has acquired Nova Surgelati from the Sopaf Group
               for Lit55bn([euro]28.4m).

ConAgra        ConAgra Foods has acquired Canadian firm Artel,
Foods          a manufacturer of frozen prepared foods. Dean
               Hollis, CEO and president of ConAgra Foods said,
               "Artel is one of the fastest growing well-run food
               companies in Canada, and we are pleased to have
               them join the ConAgra Foods family."

Billington     The Billington Food Group in the UK has announced
Food Group     the purchase of 100% of the share capital of Belso's
               Cereals Research and Development Ltd (BCRD).
               BCRD produces a range of cereals, snacks, sweet
               crumble toppings, as well as savoury ingredients,
               supplying clients in the dairy, confectionery, ready
               meals and snack sectors.

Delicious      Delicious Alternative Desserts (DAD) and
Alternative    the Canadian subsidiary of Swiss food firm
Desserts       Movenpick have announced a multi-year manufacturing
               agreement, under which DAD will co-pack Movenpick's
               ice cream and other frozen dessert products.

International  International Multifoods of the US has agreed to
Multifoods     buy the dessert and speciality-products business of
Corp.          Pillsbury. Pillsbury is currently in the process of
               being bought by General Mills from UK drinks giant
               Diageo. International Multifoods will also buy the
               Robin Hood brand of flour from General Mills.

Bongrain       French cheese company Bongrain has increased
               its stake in Compagnie Laitiere Europeenne (CLE)
               The French concern now has a stake of 42.02% of
               CLE through Alliance Laitiere Europeenne (ALE)
               Bongrain's stake used to stand at 33.3%.

Royal Ahold    Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold has received
               the green light from the US Federal Trade Commission
               to acquire 56 stores and eight sites from US firm
               Grand Union. The US concern had filed for
               bankruptcy. The stores acquired by the Dutch firm
               will be converted to both Stop & Shop and TOPS
               formats.

Royal Ahold    Royal Ahold has also acquired US firm Parkway
               Food Service through its US operation US
               Foodservice. Parkway Food Service is a broadline
               distributor operating in Florida.

Gregory's      Greek fastfood chain Gregory's Snacks is to merge
Snack          with Neon Restaurants, a subsidiary of Sanyo Hellas
               Holdings. Sanyo Hellas will gain a 10% stake in
               Gregory's Snacks following the merger.

Grigoris       Greek snack producer and fastfood operator
Micromeals     Grigoris Micromeals is set to acquire Neon Cafe.
               Grigoris Micromeals will also acquire three Neon
               Cafe real estate properties at a cost of
               [euro]14.7m.

Estover-       Estonian dairy group Uhinenud Meiereid has sold
Kaubanduse     its cheese plant based at Rannu to Estover-
               Kaubanduse, one of the largest cheese wholesal-
               ers in the Baltic State. No financial details were
               disclosed. CEO at Uhinenud Meiereid, Rudolf
               Kuldkepp, said that plant produced some 70 tonnes
               to 80t of cheese a month. Uhinenud Meiereid is
               owned by Hansapank.

Saudi          Saudi firm Savola has recently sold its chip manu-
Savola         facturing factory to the Saudi Light Food Company.
Company

Saputo         Saputo has completed the acquisition of the fluid-
               milk and cheese operations as well as certain joint-
               venture interests of Agrifoods International, more
               commonly known as Dairyworld Foods. The pur-
               chase price is around C$61.4m ([euro]45.4m).

Woolworth's    Australian food retailer Woolworths is close to of
               ficially acquiring Australian Liberty Liquors, a
               stand-alone liquor chain with a total 40 outlets,
               from Patrick Stephenson and his family.

Harvest        Harvest State Foods of the US has completed the
State Foods    acquisition of Texan-based firm Rodriguez Foods.
Foods          The deal will give Harvest State a full range of au-
               thentic prepared Mexican style food, as well as tor-
               tilla manufacturing facilities.

Compass        Having only recently completed its separation from
               Granada, Foodservice group Compass has agreed
               to acquire Morrison Management Specialists for
               US$383m.

Compass        Compass has said that it would buy the remaining
               shares of Selecta that it does not already own. Com-
               pass has said that it will pay [pound]374m in cash.

CIP            French company CIP is considering setting up a
               joint venture to make cheese with a Belorussian
               firm in the Minsk free economic zone.

Kvasac         Leading Croatian food company Podravka has
               agreed to sell its yeast plant to compatriot firm
               Kvasac, which is controlled by French firm Lesaffre.
               Podravka said the deal will allow it to fo- cus on
               its core brands, including the Vegeta seasoning
               product.